Day 23 Our Hardcore Church sightseeing day!

Well, we had to have one day where we really "worked" hard to see a good amount of sights and today was that day!  We started with one of my favorite art sights in Florence, the Brancacci Chapel. It's a small Chapel in a pretty unimpressive church, but it was painted by Masolino, the Master and Masaccio his 23 year old student. Both men were on scaffolding painting frescoes on opposite walls at the same time. It became apparent to Masolino that his student was his superior. He was a pioneer of 3-D realism. He painted real, normal looking people in regular scenery while telling the story of St Peter as well as a panel with Adam and Eve. The Adam and Eve panel is my favorite. The pain and anguish on their faces as they are expelled from the Garden of Eden always gets me!  You feel their pain!  It's not the painting that an art critic would find the most impressive, but to me, its powerful!  You stand there in this small Chapel and imagine the master looking over at what his student is doing and, while many people in that situation would get angry and jealous, Masolino tried to emulate Masaccio. He tried in one of the frescoes, and it's possible that Masaccio helped him on that panel, but it doesn't have the same power the Masaccio panels have!  It's a small, quick stop but I'd go there every time I come to Florence!  After that we went to another church, Santa Maria Novella. A very beautiful church with another of Masaccio's best works. He only painted for 5 years. He died when he was 28 so there aren't many works of his to see, but the one here really shows off his mastery of 3 dimensions!  It looks like it goes right through the wall. Have I mentioned, I love art???  There was a beautiful Crucifix by Giotto hanging in the nave and some really outstanding frescoes in the side chapels. Including a Chapel frescoes by Dominick Ghirlandaio that were really beautiful, but the highlight of them was these 3 men with their backs to you in a tiny piece of one of the panels. Ghirlandaio was Michelangelo's master when he was 13 years old and Michelangelo is thought to have painted those 3 men, see pictures, and they truly are noticeably better than the rest of the beautiful frescoes in the chapel!  He was really talented!  I know that's like the understatement of all time, but WOW!!  After that we made our way to the Duomo complex. We started at the Baptistery which is the oldest of the buildings, from the 11th century. The outside is famous for the "Gates of Paradise". Bronze doors made in the early 1400s by Lorenzo Ghiberti. Many believe that those doors are what truly kicked off The renaissance. The ones outside now are fake, but we will get to that in a little. Inside, It has beautiful Byzantine mosaics, and I have always really enjoyed that space, but they are doing hardcore renovations in there so it wasn't very enjoyable with all the hammering and clanking so we left there and went inside the Duomo. For being one of the most incredible buildings ever on the outside, the inside is very sparse. Some of that is from the huge flood that took place in 1966 and some of it is because they took a lot of the art out and moved it to the Duomo museum for safekeeping. That was our next stop. That's one of the real highlights of this incredible city!  They have totally renovated it since I was here last and changed the layout completely. It's amazing!!  They did a great job!!!  You see the original "Gates of Paradise" set up in their original frames as they used to be outside, just behind glass filled with nitrogen to keep them safe for eternity hopefully!  They are pretty incredible to get such depth in such a small, thin piece of bronze!  There were some amazing statues by Donatello, including one of Mary Magdalena where she is older and in no way beautiful!  It's really beautiful and emotional. That's a highlight. But the real highlight is Michelangelo's Pieta with a self-portrait of himself as Nicodemus that he was sculpting for his own tomb. So, he wasn't paid to do it, it was just a very personal work. He was an old man and you can see how hard of work a piece like that must have been, yet it's done so perfectly. Jesus is the only figure that he actually finished, the rest of the piece was unfinished. Also, he got so frustrated with the sculpture that he tried to destroy it with a hammer, so Jesus' arm had to be reattached in a couple of spots which just adds to the emotion of the piece. Emily cried while standing in front of it, it's that moving of a piece! There are so many other awesome things in that museum, but I won't take you on the full tour. There was a video of how Brunelleschi made the gigantic dome on the Duomo that was fascinating and then, at the end, there's a balcony that has a fantastic view of the dome, again, see pictures!  After that LONG day, we went home and rested before going to dinner. Emily and I LOVE the soup Ribollita!!  I did a huge amount of research to try and find the place with the best in Florence!  Found it, and made a reservation. Went there and was SO disappointed to find they didn't have it on the menu tonight!!  I was really upset!  But, I will say, the meal was amazing in spite of that!  We had Pappardelle with a Duck Ragu and a pasta with a cream sauce and zucchini flowers. Both were perfection!!!!  We left and had gelato at our favorite place and came home and now it's bedtime!  I know it's a long post but it was a full day!!  We have some big stuff to see tomorrow, just not as packed as today so it should be another wonderful day in Florence. This is really one of the best cities to visit. It's small enough but huge in sights, great food, nice people and just a comfortable feeling Place!  COME HERE!!  Thanks for reading the blog. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!  We miss our families on days like these, a lot!  Enjoy yours. We will have a delicious bowl of pasta together I'm sure! LOL We love you and we especially love our families!  Thanks!!!